An Interview With an HIV+ Woman: Dawn Averitt

Submitted on Mar 1, 2013

February 28, 2013 - Office on Women's Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Womenshealth.gov). Dawn Averitt had very large swollen lymph nodes in her neck, and the doctors were testing her for everything trying to figure out what was causing them. They never suggested an HIV test (it was 1988), but she thought she might as well get her "HIV-negative card" while they were taking all of this blood from her anyway. Her medical team resisted testing her, but the more they resisted, the more she pushed. She really didn't believe she would be HIV-positive. She thought she was being cutting-edge, which appealed to her at age 19. Continue reading...